PETITION TARGET: Ambassador of Ireland to the United States Dan Mulhall
In the largest known live stranding of northern bottlenose whales ever recorded in Ireland, seven innocent animals tragically died after washing ashore, and the culprit is believed to be ‘acoustic trauma’ usually caused by human activity, according to Sibeal Regan of Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG).
Unfortunately, rescuers are rarely given the resources necessary to humanely euthanize suffering deep-diving species, or to perform full postmortem evaluations to determine the cause of death. This must change — if human activity is to blame, we need stronger protections for whales.
By the time officers reached the distressing scene in County Donegal, it was already too late. And without any way to safely euthanize the whales, emergency personnel could only try to alleviate their suffering as they slowly overheated.
Their heavy bodies can crush their bones, too, without water to support their weight, according to the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) ScienceLine.
Experts suspect that human sonar use causes deep-diving marine mammals to suffer from acoustic trauma, leading to these mass strandings. It is imperative that we determine if human activity is playing a role in whale deaths, and, if so, we must take corrective action to prevent more needless suffering.
Sign this petition urging Ireland Ambassador to the United States Dan Mulhall to push for full postmortem evaluations on all future strandings of deep-diving species, as well as humane euthanization tools for when rescue is not an option.
